Training
A conditioning guide for strength athletes
Here's what you need to know...
- Planned wisely, training strength and conditioning at the same time can make you stronger.
- The myth that endurance training causes strength loss was taken from studies that looked at extreme cases.
- GPP (General Physical Preparedness) is not as important for powerlifting competitions, but is even more important when it comes to training for these competitions.
- A solid base of conditioning will speed up recovery after strength training.
- Mobility cycles will kill two birds with one stone: better mobility and better overall conditioning.
Strength and endurance?
You've probably heard that strength athletes should avoid cardio and conditioning and instead focus exclusively on the strength side of the sport.
Perhaps you have listened to this advice. After all, it makes sense. Training for endurance and strength at the same time will not give you optimal results for either endurance or strength.
But is this really true? Have you ever taken a closer look at how different types of training can support each other?
Rev up your engine
Conditioning is about more than just improving your mile time, increasing your VO2 max or getting lean for the beach. Conditioning can be an engine for your body's power source.
Regardless of your sport, conditioning is a part of your training plan that needs to be put into action. The type of sport you play will only dictate the style and type of conditioning training.
The research on simultaneous training for strength and endurance:
Scientific research has shown that even with simultaneous strength and endurance training, further strength gains occur.
Studies by McCarthy et. Al. and Kraemer et. Al. show improvements in strength in the groups that trained strength and endurance that were comparable to the improvements observed in the groups that only trained their strength.
The myth of a loss of strength through endurance training was derived from studies that examined extreme cases. In the field of strength sports, this way of thinking was simply adopted, which is particularly true for the sport of powerlifting.
Strong and completely out of shape?Powerlifter:
Powerlifting has evolved and changed over the last few decades and is slowly starting to grow out of the old-school mindset.
It has always been accepted that powerlifters are overweight and don't need any athleticism or conditioning.
I single out powerlifting because it is one of the few sports that is all about maximum strength and does not require any form of endurance. It's a sport where each effort can last maybe seven seconds at the top end of the scale, with long pauses between each attempt.
If you look at this sport as an outsider, then you could easily argue that there is no need for any conditioning for athletes of this discipline. But those who are a little more familiar with the science can attest that there is such a need, taking into account recent findings in the field of simultaneous training for strength and endurance.
Some research has shown that training for both endurance and strength at the same time will result in a lower impact on strength gains. This is a problem in a sport that is all about maximum strength.
However, this consideration does not usually take into account that the studies mentioned used a higher volume of endurance training and did not consider a well-planned program. Instead of delving deeper into this topic, people simply take the conventional wisdom on strength and endurance training for granted and ignore conditioning completely.
The problems that come from this idea are many and dangerous.
The construction of a foundation
When building any impressive landmark, a solid foundation is necessary. Without this base, the structure will crumble and soon fall apart. The same is true when we talk about a strong and muscular body.
If the base is not strong enough, then it is only a matter of time before progress will stall and injuries will occur.
In the three major exercises, the fundamentals of the movements are an important foundation. In other words, you need to know how to perform squats, bench presses and deadlifts correctly and without compensations. This is essential for any strength athlete and is a prerequisite for continued progress.
This goes hand in hand with something called General Physical Preparedness (GPP). GPP means that the body's energy systems are conditioned to work longer and more efficiently.
A powerlifter will rely more on the ATP/CP (adenosine triphosphate/creatine phosphate) system for short, maximum power releases on race day.
However, when it comes to training for a competition, a strength athlete with better GGP compared to a strength athlete with poor conditioning will be able to perform more work sets and more exercises and therefore achieve better strength gains.
Working to increase mitochondrial density and increase muscle glycogen stores will allow a muscle to be able to work longer, which in turn gives the athlete the ability to train longer and more intensely - and better training equals better results.
Energy systems and recovery
When it comes to recovery, strength athletes are always trying to get a head start. From supplements to sleep and nutrition, strength athletes try everything to find the next big thing.
Why? Because faster recovery means more training and more training means better results.
But what does conditioning have to do with recovery? The answer is simple: energy systems.
When we exercise, we create chemical changes that cause the fatigue we feel. Muscles use energy substrates such as ATP as a source of energy. Lactic acid and hydrogen ions accumulate (the burn we all love and hate) and glycogen stores are slowly depleted.
Through better conditioning, an athlete can improve oxygen delivery to the muscles, achieve more efficient ATP production and burn lactic acid. The aerobic system is the primary source of energy for regeneration.
The transportation of nutrients, hormones, metabolites and waste products through the blood is essential. The ability of the blood flow to pump the required nutrients to the muscles and to remove the waste products produced during exercise plays an enormous role in both performance and health (2).
With an improvement in nutrient and oxygen transportation, an exerciser will not only be able to exercise longer at a higher work capacity, but also recover faster and more efficiently after exercise. This improved recovery will lead to more frequent and efficient training sessions.
An additional aspect of these improvements is the competition day. Many of these competitions last for hours, and by the time it's time to deadlift, many athletes are already exhausted and failing at weights they've done over and over again in training.
With an improved aerobic base, the body can fully recover after each attempt and stay fresher throughout the day, which will lead to new personal bests.
Fit or fat?
If you look at the history of powerlifting, there are two things that have always stood out: these people were insanely strong and they were also fat.
Yes, I said FAT.
Old-school powerlifters all seemed to share the same traits and none of those traits matched their bodybuilding counterparts. When I was younger, I just accepted that weight was an advantage, but today I have come to realize that the higher body fat percentage is not an advantage, but in fact a hindrance.
Why do many powerlifters get fat in the first place?
To get stronger, we need to maintain a caloric surplus and when we do this in combination with a lack of conditioning, weight gain is inevitable.
For a strength athlete like a powerlifter, strength is the main goal and therefore nutrition becomes a tool to develop strength rather than a sexy look. This is all well and good, but there is a way to achieve both.
The best of both worlds
Science and practice have helped us make many breakthroughs in the world of nutrition. We now know more than ever before and we know the culprits behind fat storage.
We have also begun to learn about the medicinal effects of certain foods and how they can support our performance in all areas of life. It's time we start using this knowledge for strength and body development.
By paying attention to the macro and micronutrients, we can manipulate our diet not only to lose fat, but to maintain our strength or even get stronger at the same time. To do this, however, we must use conditioning as part of our programs.
In short, powerlifters no longer have a reason to be fat.
In fact, it makes sense for a powerlifter to be as lean as possible. Powerlifting is divided into weight classes and you only compete against other powerlifters in your weight class.
So if two powerlifters weigh 100 kilos and one has 10% body fat and the other has 20% body fat, the math tells us that the powerlifter with only 10% body fat has more muscle mass and therefore a higher potential for strength.
So it's only logical to be leaner than your opponents, to have greater potential.
Let's put this into practice
Conditioning for strength athletes will improve body composition, work capacity and recovery, all of which will lead to a more efficient athlete and a better workout. The big question now is how to build such a program so that it doesn't interfere with strength training.
A strength athlete is not going to run mile after mile and spend hours on the elliptical every week to improve their conditioning. There is no need for these amounts of endurance training and the exercise selection should be more specific to the sport itself.
During the off-season, most of the aerobic base should be built up. This is the time of year during which 3 to 4 training sessions of 20 to 60 minutes each can be scheduled per week.
These workouts could be anything from walking, stadium stair running or sled pulling.
As a strength athlete approaches the competition season and begins the preparation phase, the frequency should be reduced and exercise selection could be adjusted.
Some of the best things for conditioning are timed weight sled pulls, agility cycles and training with the medicine ball. Whatever you choose, the goal will be to keep your heart rate in a range of about 130 to 150 and keep lactic acid buildup to a minimum.
Increase slowly from week to week by adding time or repetitions. It is most helpful to schedule lower body workouts the day after a heavy squat or deadlift workout and upper body workouts the day after a heavy bench press workout.
This allows an increase in blood flow to the damaged muscle groups, speeding up recovery and alleviating muscle soreness.
Below is an example week of training with conditioning:
Monday
Bench press 5 x 2 85%
Bench press with close grip 3 x 8
Rowing with chest support 5 x 10
Pull-ups 4 x 10
Tricep press 3 x 15
Tuesday
25 minutes flexibility circuit
Wednesday
Squats 5 x 2 85%
Paused Squats 3 x 6
Romanian Deadlift 4 x 8
Glute-Ham Raise 4 x 8
Thursday
20 minutes sled pull with 20 kilos
Friday
Overhead press 5 x 5
Pull-ups 5 x 10
Dumbbell rows 5 x 10
Tricep presses on cable 3 x 15
Saturday
Deadlift 8 x 1 70%
Front squats 5 x 5
Ab rollout 5 x 10
Sunday
60 minutes walking on the treadmill with incline
Agility circuit
One idea is to integrate flexibility circuits. These kill two birds with one stone and can be an excellent addition to any training plan.
Start with 4 to 5 exercises aimed at training flexibility in exercises or areas where you lack flexibility. Perform 15 to 20 repetitions per exercise. Perform the exercises in the form of a circuit and repeat for 15 to 30 minutes.
Your heart rate should remain in the region of 130 beats per minute and you should work up a sweat. This not only helps your fitness but also improves the quality of your movement.
Stop with the excuses
Powerlifting has a stigma of being a fat and lazy sport. People who don't want to do cardio choose to simply move heavy weights.
But powerlifting is about more than just moving weights. Powerlifting epitomizes both physical and mental strength. It takes drive and courage to move under the weights that you know could crush you.
There is grace and athleticism involved in form and positioning, and those who succeed feel a sense of pride.
Shatter that stigma and show pride for your abilities, your body and your athleticism. End these stereotypes and create a new look for powerlifting and other strength sports.
Build fitness, improve your recovery and set new records.
References
- McCarthy et. Al. Compatibility of adaptive responses with combining strength and endurance training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise [1995, 27(3):429-436].
- Kraemer et. Al. Compatibility of high-intensity strength and endurance training on hormonal and skeletal muscle adaptations. Journal of Applied Physiology. March 1995. vol. 78 no. 3, 976-989.
- Strength training and cardiovascular training side by side: How does one affect the other? Sport Fitness Advisor.
- Jamison, Joel. Ultimate MMA Conditioning. 2009 Performance Sports Inc.
By Chance Cianciola | 03/31/15
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/no-more-strong-fat-guys
Related blog posts:
Here's what you need to know...
- How you perform your reps plays a big part in stimulating the gains you want to make.
- The principle underlying CAT is that if you move a submaximal weight, you can compensate for this lack of resistance by accelerating faster.
- Dynamic correspondence repetitions require that you should move the weight in the same way as a maximal weight - same speed, same acceleration and same tension.
- Repetitions with constant tension are based on the principle of occlusion, which is based on limiting the blood supply to the muscles and the resulting oxygen deprivation.
- Normal repetitions allow you to have enough energy to perform more repetitions with a given weight while still using enough force to stimulate muscle growth and strength gains.
How should I perform my repetitions?
I never get asked this question. That's a shame, because how you perform your reps plays a big part in stimulating the gains you want.
Think about it: the training session itself is nothing but a long set of repetitions spread over different exercises. The basic unit of your training session is the repetition. The more repetitions you perform correctly, the better your gains will be.
By performing correctly, I mean performing the repetition in the right way to achieve the exact stimulation necessary to get the gains you want.
There is more than one correct way to perform repetitions and the different execution styles depend on what your goals are.
The 4 repetition styles
1 - The CAT repetition
The concept of Compensatory Acceleration Training - CAT for short, meaning compensatory acceleration training - was popularized by powerlifting legend Fred Hatfield. The basic premise is simple:
Strength equals mass times acceleration.
In other words, you can increase the amount of force your muscles need to produce by increasing the mass (the weight on the bar) and/or the acceleration you exert on the barbell as you move it upwards.
The principle behind CAT is that if you are moving a submaximal weight, you can compensate for the lack of resistance by accelerating the weight faster.
What does such a repetition look like? Let's say you are training bench press. A CAT repetition means that you move the weight explosively upwards from your chest and try to accelerate the bar as much and as long as possible.
Another aspect of CAT is the transition between the eccentric (lowering) and concentric (lifting) part of the movement. The transition itself should be fast. This requires very strong antagonistic muscles to stabilize the joints at the point of change in direction of movement. For example, you need strong rhomboids, strong posterior shoulder muscles and a strong latissimus to be able to perform the quick change of direction of movement in the bench press. Even the biceps can help here.
Most of the eccentric phase should be performed under complete control (not slow, but you must control the barbell), but the movement at the reversal point of the movement must be fast and then you must try to produce as much acceleration as possible as you move the weight up.
If the weight is heavy, the bar may not move really fast. The acceleration is meant to compensate for a lighter weight and a heavy weight means you won't be able to compensate much and the acceleration won't be strong. Regardless of this, you should still try to achieve as much acceleration/speed as possible.
Advantages of CAT
- This style of repetition maximizes maximum force production at any given weight, making the muscles stronger.
- By working on acceleration, you will also develop more power/explosiveness than if you use a more 'regular' repetition style, which is good if you are an athlete trying to be explosive.
- By trying to move the weight as fast as possible, you maximize the recruitment of the fast-contracting motor units. Over time, you will become more efficient at recruiting these fibers, which will obviously help you develop more strength, power and muscle mass in the future.
- By using the stretch reflex at the reversal point of movement, you will become more efficient at using it in muscle actions, which can help you in sports activities that require the use of this stretch reflex.
Disadvantages of CAT
It will sound strange since I mentioned that CAT maximizes the maximum force release during a repetition with a given weight, but CAT is not optimal when it comes to developing 1RM strength with slow movement speed.
You'll get stronger on fast reps, but once the weight gets too heavy to accelerate, you won't be able to push it up any further. Someone who trains in a different way will usually be able to slowly push a weight up with maximum effort that is much heavier than the weight they can move with acceleration.
I also mentioned that CAT leads to a higher maximum force production for a given weight. This is also true so far. But it does not mean that the average force production over the entire range of motion is higher. In fact, this is not the case.
What happens is that you produce a very high maximum force at the beginning of the movement, but have quite low levels of force production in the later parts of the movement because you are relying on the momentum produced by the initial push.
In reality, momentum actually reduces the mass you need to overcome in the later parts of the movement, which reduces the amount of force you need to produce.
What happens is that you become very good at producing a burst of force over a very short period of time/movement space, but lose the capacity to sustain that force production for the duration of a repetition.
This means that you will not be able to 'choke' heavy weights slowly upwards. When the momentum from the initial push comes to an end, so does the movement.
This is why we sometimes use bands and chains, these tools adjust the resistance in the upper range of motion. They can counteract the effect of the initial momentum generated and allow you to maintain a higher force production throughout the range of motion.
Unfortunately, bands cannot be used for very long. They drastically increase the eccentric load during exercise execution, which significantly prolongs the recovery phase. You should not use bands for more than three weeks in a row. Chains are more forgiving and can therefore be used more frequently.
When you should use CAT
CAT should only be used for the heavy basic exercises - and especially for exercises of a pressing nature such as bench presses, shoulder presses, push presses (standing shoulder presses with some momentum from the legs), squats and front squats.
CAT does not work so well with deadlifts because you lose your position during the first pull (from the floor to the knees), which is both inefficient and dangerous. Deadlifts are better performed with a gradual acceleration.
CAT is also not ideal for pulling exercises such as pull-ups and rowing, as much of the workload is shifted away from the back to the biceps and forearms.
CAT should only be used if you have a solid and correct technique for the exercise you want to use it for. Using CAT on exercises where your technique is not solid and stable will often result in poor exercise execution form, or at least form that is not the same as your heavy exercise executions.
Even though CAT is a method that builds power and explosiveness, ironically, athletes who are already very explosive should not use this technique too often. The more explosive you are, the lower the average power produced throughout the range of motion, as a person who is super explosive can generate tremendous momentum on the first push.
CAT is therefore best used in heavy multi-joint exercises by exercisers who are not naturally explosive and who have good exercise execution technique.
2 - Dynamic Correspondence Training
The basic premise of dynamic correspondence training is that every exercise should look exactly like a maximal effort exercise. This means that if you want to get good at developing maximal strength on a maximal attempt, you should get as much practice as possible under the same conditions.
A lot of people have excellent technique at weights up to 90-92% of their max - the tempo is good, the execution looks solid and the technique doesn't let up at any point in the movement. But when these people get into the 95 to 100% zone, everything goes down the drain.
Technique is neglected and ultimately the weight on the max attempt isn't much higher (if it's higher at all) than the 3RM weight (the max weight for 3 reps).
I already addressed this issue to some extent when I talked about the disadvantages of compensatory acceleration training (CAT): You get good at demonstrating strength under a certain type of contraction or circumstance, but if the weight forces you to use a different strategy of force production, then you lose all your efficiency.
So the underlying principle of dynamic correspondence training is to strive to make each repetition in a heavy multi-joint exercise look exactly like a repetition with maximum effort would look. This means lowering and moving the weight up in the same way as you would at your maximum weights - same speed, same acceleration, same tension.
When performing CAT reps, you compensate for the lack of weight by accelerating harder, but in the dynamic correspondence approach, you compensate for the lack of weight by contracting the muscles involved in the movement harder - in a sense, as if you were trying to tense the muscles as hard as possible during the movement.
This action could also be called compensatory tension, as you compensate for the lower weight by increasing voluntary muscle tension.
Advantages of dynamic correspondence
- Dynamic correspondence training makes you efficient at overcoming resistance and conditions like a maximal attempt. This means that your form will most likely be much more stable when using maximum weights and should allow you to reach higher maximum weights and reach them safely.
- Dynamic correspondence training also teaches you to recruit your muscles more efficiently and makes the joints involved in the movement more stable.
- This capacity to recruit muscles more efficiently will eventually become automatic and you will be
- become more stable when performing heavy basic exercises
- stimulate your muscles more because you are more efficient at recruiting these muscles
- You will also become more aware of your body position during these types of repetitions, which will make it easier for you to learn and perfect correct technique
Disadvantages of dynamic correspondence
The biggest disadvantage of dynamic correspondence training is that if you only perform this type of training, you will lose your capacity to produce force during high speed/explosive actions.
If you perform these repetitions correctly (producing maximum tension by consciously tensing your muscles as hard as possible), then you will make each repetition significantly more demanding and this will significantly reduce the number of repetitions you can perform. Fatigue will set in much faster than with normal repetitions. For this reason, it is better to use dynamic correspondence on sets with low repetitions - say 1 to 3.
You can use dynamic correspondence for up to 5 repetitions, but it may well be that the tension is not as strong on the last two repetitions. This is perfectly fine because fatigue "makes the weight heavier" (relatively speaking), so reps 4 and 5 will actually feel like max reps even though you're not using as much tension.
Some people simply perform "slower reps" that mimic the speed of a max repetition without contracting their muscles as hard as possible. If you do this, then you will probably actually lose strength as your force release will be low. If you are performing a dynamic correspondence repetition, then a repetition should look and feel like a max repetition. You are simply making a lighter weight as demanding as a max weight.
When to use dynamic correspondence
It's best to use dynamic correspondence when you're focusing on max strength while using a progressive loading cycle (like my 915 plan), where you start a training cycle with a moderate weight and low reps and gradually increase the weight until you're moving a max weight 8 to 12 weeks later.
In this case, the main exercises - the exercises where you want to test your strength at the end of the cycle - will be performed using dynamic correspondence, while supportive training will be done using CAT or normal repetitions.
Dynamic correspondence training is also a good way to perform your repetitions if you like high-frequency training. For example, if you choose to bench press and deadlift five times a week, it's best to use a lighter weight and keep the reps low.
With such an approach, you typically stay in the 75 to 80% range most of the time (with an occasional day at 90 to 95% to see where you are) and perform 3 to 5 repetitions or even fewer repetitions.
The dynamic correspondence method is very well adapted to this type of training because it aims to develop strength skill: The ability to show strength under conditions of maximum effort.
3 - Training with constant tension
Constant tension repetitions are based on the principle of occlusion, which is based on the fact that when the blood supply to the muscle is restricted, the muscle is deprived of oxygen.
This lack of oxygen, as well as the inability to remove the waste products that accumulate during muscle contractions, increases the release of local growth factors, which can trigger hypertrophy or muscle growth.
Occlusion can be achieved through the use of cuffs that restrict blood flow to the exercised limb, but constant tension can also achieve this.
When a muscle contracts, the blood flow into the muscle is stopped or at least greatly reduced. Only when the muscle relaxes again can blood flow into the muscle. The harder a muscle contracts, the less blood can flow into the muscle.
So if the target muscle remains contracted throughout the set and never relaxes, you can achieve a type of occlusion. To do this, it is crucial that you contract the target muscle as hard as possible during every inch of the movement. You must not stop the contraction until the movement is over.
Imagine that you are not moving a weight, but simply contracting the muscle. Each phase of the repetition is performed slowly to maximize both the time under tension and the amount of tension. If you perform the movement too quickly, the momentum will result in short periods of relaxation, which will destroy the effect of the occlusion.
Advantages of constant tension
- This repetition style works well to isolate a muscle group and stimulate local hypertrophy. It does this via a local release of growth factors rather than muscle damage or heavy mechanical work. You don't need to use a heavy weight, as studies have shown significant gains with this type of contraction using as little as 30% of maximum weight.
- Training with constant tension can be done very frequently and will not negatively affect subsequent training sessions.
- This style of training will improve the mind-muscle connection with the target muscle, which means you will be better at recruiting muscle fibers in the future.
- Constant tension training is also very safe due to the slow movement performed with a high degree of tension.
Disadvantages of constant tension
This type of training will not build strength. And if you only train this way, you will have bigger muscles, but you will be weak. Constant tension training is a great way to learn to use a specific muscle, but can mess up the mechanics of a heavy basic exercise.
Constant tension training also requires a lot of mental focus and significant pain tolerance, as you will achieve a lot of muscle burn during the set with these types of repetitions. Muscle burning is an indicator of a strong accumulation of metabolic waste products, which can stimulate the release of growth factors.
You will rarely be limited by your strength with this method. Instead, the limit will be based on how much muscle burning you can tolerate. Over time, this type of training can become very mentally demanding.
Constant tension does not work well with multi-joint exercises. It is best suited for isolation training and should never be the foundation of your training. So even though this method is effective, its applications are limited for someone who prefers to focus on the big basic exercises.
When you should use constant tension
Constant tension is best for isolation exercises. I prefer to do almost all of my isolation training this way. I do a lot of heavy training with the big multi-joint exercises, which helps me develop strength and explosiveness, so using constant tension in isolation exercises gives me what I don't get from my main exercises.
I also like constant tension training because it teaches me to use those muscles. For this reason, I use it for my weakest muscles - not only to build them up, but also to get better at recruiting those muscles, which allows me to use them better in my heavy core exercises as well.
The only time I use constant tension with clients in multi-joint exercises are exercises that are performed with only your own body weight, such as push-ups, dips, squats without additional weight, etc. In these exercises, the external load is quite light and I only use constant tension here if the client can perform at least 15 repetitions of the exercise in question.
4 - "Normal" repetitions
By normal repetitions I mean repetitions where
- No specific effort is made to perform them as explosively as possible
- No specific effort is made to generate as much tension as possible
- Not attempting to contract the target muscle through every inch of the movement
- Not attempting to perform each repetition with minimal effort/accumulating exhaustion
This does not mean performing sloppy repetitions or repetitions without concentration. It means lowering the weight slowly and under control and then moving solidly back up, dominating the weight without accelerating it excessively.
The weight is controlled, not slowly lowered, and controlled in such a way that you could easily pause at any point in the range of motion.
Normal repetitions are also characterized by a rapid but smooth transition from the eccentric to the concentric part of the movement. In contrast to the "perfect repetition/CAT", you do not try to execute this transition as quickly as possible and perform an explosive concentric repetition using the stretch reflex. Instead, you reverse the direction of movement of the weight in a controlled manner and when you transition to the concentric part of the repetition, it is a smooth push/pull.
You perform the concentric part of the movement by producing enough force to overcome the weight solidly, but without accelerating it as much as possible. The goal is to perform each repetition with power and using perfect technique without burning yourself out.
At the highest point of the movement, take the time to hold the weight for a second before moving on to the next repetition.
Advantages of normal repetitions
- Normal reps are the happy medium between CAT/dynamic correspondence (where you make the reps more demanding by producing more force than necessary) and reps performed with the least amount of fatigue possible, as is the case with kettlebell swings on volume or crossfit WODs.
- They allow you to have enough energy to perform more repetitions with a given weight while still using enough force to stimulate muscle growth and strength gains.
Disadvantages of normal repetitions
While normal repetitions are good for muscle hypertrophy because they allow you to perform more repetitions with a given weight, they are not optimal for building strength unless you are using a heavy weight.
You can build strength with CAT and dynamic correspondence if you use 70% of your 1RM weight because you are "artificially" increasing strength production. This will not work with normal repetitions.
When you should use normal repetitions
It's best to use normal reps when you're using a moderate weight for a moderately high amount of reps - sets of at least 6 and up to 15-20 reps, at least for multi-joint exercises.
Normal reps are also the way to perform isolation training with low reps/on strength. We don't often perform isolation exercises on strength, but it is possible if the goal is to make a single muscle stronger rather than bigger.
In this case, normal repetitions are the best option. Constant tension will not allow us to use enough weight and CAT will make most exercises worthless as momentum will do most of the work for you.
Are there other repetition styles?
Countless! Other repetition styles exist for more specific applications, but 90% of the time the ones described here are the ones you should use. Master these and you'll never complain about your gains again.
by Christian Thibaudeau | 03/03/15
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/rep-bible
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40 pounds of mass
Yes, I know, everyone is an expert on mass gain. The internet is full of 60-pound skinny experts.
Here's a summary of their mass-building methods: put a bunch of big words in a row or get out a thesaurus and pack each sentence full of synonyms. Bam! Your following will instantly grow.
At a recent workshop, I was "held hostage" by a guy who argued that regular squats are superior to front squats due to leg flexor recruitment. The problem was that this guy, I later learned, had never performed a squat in his life. Another expert.
In fact, I'm a pretty good example of real mass gain myself. Within four months, I built 40 pounds of muscle without steroids and increased my body weight from 73 to 92 kilos. What was interesting about my four months of forty pound gains is what I did before I started building mass. Why? Well, that's probably what you're doing right now.
At a body weight of 73 kilos, I trained heavy bench press almost every day. At a bodyweight of 73 kilos, I trained lat pulldowns and a selection of curls, did a lot of abdominal training and moved quickly from machine to machine. Then I met Dick Notmeyer and the pointer on the scales started to move.
At Dick's there was a barbell on the floor and a squat rack. Three times a week I went to the bar on the floor and moved it overhead in a few different ways. Two days a week I did squats.
Pretty soon I was constantly hungry - so hungry that I was eating sandwiches right before dinner so I wouldn't be so hungry during dinner.
Dick had me weigh myself every day and it was shocking to see the numbers go up daily. I came home once after working out and my brother, who hadn't seen me for a couple weeks, looked up from the table at me and said "Holy crap!".
Guys, this is a mass-building program.
If you don't see someone for a few weeks and that person doesn't recognize you, then you've done everything right. On the other hand, if you're lighter two months after you've started mass building than when you started, then: welcome to the club. Most people who want to gain mass fail at this.
Why? Because:
- They do too many things that make them tired but not bulky.
- They do too few things that make them bulky and really tired.
Read on and I will explain this
The 3 principles of mass building
This is a formula you can build on:
1 - You need to get stronger, but you can do this with any smart basic program.
I fell in love with Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program because it works quite simply.
You need to do two things to get stronger: increase the weight and do more reps. The answer has never been: do a lot of reps with a light weight or do a few reps with a heavy weight. The answer remains: Perform many reps with heavy weights.
2 - The other part of the formula is as old as the squat rack: you need to perform some serious squats
In the March 1980 issue of Ironman magazine, there was a short article by Jack Kirwan: "A Seminar by Tom Platz." (A Seminar by Tom Platz). His relentless candor - along with the mass of his thighs - has always been Tom's trademark. His answer to skinny arms, a weak chest or whatever, was quite simply to train the body with squats.
To repeat: squats are the answer.
3 - Last but not least, you literally need to spend more time with the bar.
By far the best way I know of to spend more time with the bar in your hand is to use complex sets.
As you may have read in previous articles, complex sets involve performing a series of exercises in cycles without putting the bar down between sets, completing all repetitions of an exercise before moving on to the next exercise. It's brutal, you'll whimper. And then you'll want to do it again (but not immediately after).
Let's put it all together
The magic of a mass-building program is putting these three elements together and surviving the workouts that result.
Let me say this first: Ideally, the best way to prepare for a mass-building program is to get lean first.
Although this may seem counter-intuitive, the athletes who have made the best gains are those who had just completed something that consumed enormous amounts of resources and time and energy and calories. The body had adapted to that stress and was prepared to build mass to adapt to future crises. This is why football players in December and wrestlers in March tend to put on 10 pounds seemingly overnight.
How do you get lean? I think running the Appalachian trail from Georgia to Maine and eating only protein and fats would lower your body fat levels. You can also run barefoot to regain strength in your feet, toes and ankles. Next, you should then move to a warm and sunny place and start exercising seriously.
Not practical? Okay, fine. There are quite a few ways to get lean, but I refuse to ignore the Velocity Diet. The lesson I learned from my last V diet is that I wasn't eating enough protein before. I also agree that the really important changes from this diet are psychological.
I realize that not many people will follow my advice to get lean first. However, if you ever get the chance to try this sequence - getting lean first, followed by a mass-building phase - you'll be amazed at the difference.
And how do we put the training sessions together? As follows:
Element #1: The basic strength program
To get stronger, I like to consider performing four basic strength exercises. Jim Wendler recommends classic squats, standing barbell shoulder presses, deadlifts and bench presses. Use this with a low-volume approach and with a serious set of "as many reps as possible" as the last set.
Here's how we've adapted this for our athletes over the course of the week:
- Day 1: Front squats and bench press. We use front squats in the strength portion of our training session. The classic squats are for higher repetitions.
- Day 2: Deadlift and barbell shoulder press standing.
It takes about 15 minutes or so to do some light warming up and then the three serious sets of each exercise. The last set is done with as many reps as possible and that's the only number we write down. If your reps increase at one weight then you are getting stronger, but for some reason people miss this simple point.
If you do something else (and there are dozens of basic strength programs) then that's fine, but have an eye on the time it takes you to do the work. Basic exercises and basic training can be done much more efficiently. I had excellent results years ago when I only trained two days a week with basic exercises.
Element #2: Squats with high repetitions
During the mass building phase, high repetition squats are the next exercise. Here's what Tom Platz recommended:
Monday:
- 135* x 10
- 225 x 10
- 275 x 6
- 325 x 3
- 345 x 3
- 345 x 3
- 275 to exhaustion
* The weights are given in pounds and are only examples. Divide these values by 2.2 to get the weight in kilograms.
Friday:
- 135 x 10
- 225 x 10
- 275 x 5
- 325 x 5
- 325 x 5
- 325 x 5
I allow my athletes a two-week acclimatization phase. Why? If you're coming from another sport (or that little six-month hike I mentioned), anything you do during the first two weeks is going to increase the weight on the scale.
Here's exactly what we do:
Classic squats
Week 1
- Day 1: One set of 30 reps with 45 kilos
- Day 2: Twosets of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos
- Day 1: One set of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos. One set of 30 repetitions with 52.5 kilos
- Day 2: Three sets of 25 repetitions with 52.5 kilos
Week 2
The ashen faces of my athletes during the training sessions of week 2 indicate that something good is happening! From then on, we aim for heavier and heavier weights per week on one training session with classic squats and on the other training session we aim for more reps.
This could be something as simple as the following:
Week 1
Day 1:
- Warm up
- 185 x 10
- 205 x 10
- 225 x 10
- 275 x 5
- 315 x 5
Day 2:
- Warm up
- 185 x 5
- 205 x 5
- 225 x 20 x 15
Week 2:
Day 1:
- Warm up
- 185 x 10
- 225 x 10
- 275 x 5
- 315 x 5
- 335 x 3
Day 2:
- Warm up
- 185 x 5
- 205 x 5
- 225 x 25 x 20
There is no secret to building mass. You need to load the bar and get down on your knees. Then move back up again.
After the familiarization phase, give yourself about four weeks to focus on high-volume squats. Then stop. To recap: two weeks to get used to it, four weeks to push weights and reps up, and then move on to the next part.
Element #3: The complex sets
We've had really good success with using complex sets when it comes to really increasing time under load for our athletes. If you're new to complex sets, try this simple variation:
- Reposition the weight eight times
- Perform 8 repetitions of standing shoulder press after the last repetition
- Lower the weight to your neck and perform eight squats
- Lift the weight forward over your head and perform eight front squats
- Lower the weight and perform eight repetitions of deadlifts
Here is an excellent hypertrophy complex. Take a kettlebell in each hand, reposition the weight and press the kettlebells up overhead. Now do the following:
- Press the kettlebells upwards eight times
- Reposition the kettlebells eight times
- Perform eight front squats with the kettlebells
- Perform eight repetitions of deadlifts with kettlebells
I recommend using complex sets twice a week for a general warm-up. Here is an example:
Day 1
Complex D
- Rowing upright
- Snatch
- Classic squats
- Neck press
- Good Mornings
- Rowing
Perform 3 sets of 8 repetitions of this complex with a light weight.
The "big two"
- Front squats
- Bench press
Use the 5/3/1 program
High-volume classic squats
- One set of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos
Eat something.
Day 2:
Complex A
- Rowing
- Reposition
- Front squat,
- Standing barbell shoulder press
- Classic squats
- Good Mornings
Perform 3 sets of 8 repetitions with a light weight.
The "big two"
- Deadlift
- Standing barbell shoulder press
Use the 5/3/1 program
High-volume classic squats
- One set of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos
Eat something.
This would be a nice familiarization workout.
The bonus day
I still strongly recommend one extra training day per week. On this day, warm up and perform 5 sets of 3 reps with one of the standard complexes and aim to increase the weight on each set.
After that, do any of the things you feel you're missing - like curls or whatever. Perform a good training session and go home. I'm not going to plan these in detail for you. If you don't want to do this bonus day, that's fine too.
Nutrition and other factors
1 - Eat three meals a day
Eat an additional three to four snacks per day. I prefer each meal to be a meat-, fish-, egg- or poultry-based meal with black beans, pinto beans or white beans and vegetables, but you have some leeway during a mass-building program.
Snacks? During a bulking phase, you can also get away with diet killers. Yes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches work when it comes to gaining weight. No, I can't believe I wrote that either.
2 - If you really want to shock yourself, use fish oil
Here's a weird "secret" that I use with my extremely motivated athletes: Increase the amount of fish oil capsules until you get a little "runny". (If you don't know what I mean, then you've never taken too many fish oil capsules).
When you have reached this amount, reduce the number of capsules by one or two and that is the amount of fish oil you need per day.
3 - Regeneration is important
You need to sleep. It's okay to watch movies and TV during a bulking phase. I never recommend mass-building phases that last too long. So it's okay to become a typical American for a few months.
Furthermore, I don't want you to play basketball, train for a marathon or learn a new sport. Later, of course, but not now.
4 - Don't try to perform your sport at an elite level!
You are focusing on something else for now. It may even be good that your sporting skills are diminishing somewhat. That's okay temporarily as you focus on building mass.
Summary
Gaining mass is fundamental. Remember this. If you try to do too much or get too smart during these six weeks, you won't make the kind of progress I typically see.
You can expect a boost during the first two weeks that will convince you that the simple combination of strength training, high repetition squats and complexes will actually work better than something more exotic and sexy.
Always remember that I didn't say it would be easy - just simple.
From Dan John | 12/14/09
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/mass-made-simple
Your guide to training twice a day
There aren't many situations where two isn't better than one...(just use your imagination). With hypertrophy training, the same is true...if you use the right approach.
Can't find a job for the summer vacation and are you ambitious enough to go to the gym twice a day? This article will show you a few ways to work out twice a day. As a bonus, I'll include a sample program that uses many of the methods described.
Let's get down to business
The rules
Rule #1: Exercise in the morning and afternoon/evening
If you work out twice a day, then there should be a minimum time gap of six hours between the two workouts so that you can reap the maximum benefits of each workout.
In other words, you should not start your first training session of the day at 14:00 and then try to do your second training session at 16:00. It is better to train in the morning and then again in the afternoon or early evening.
Rule #2: Do the more challenging workout at the time of day when you feel best
This is a very relative rule, but one that you need to consider if you want to go to the gym twice in one day. This rule is relative in that some people feel better when they work out in the afternoon, while others feel better when they work out in the morning.
The demanding nature of a particular training session, repetition ranges, etc. can also be relative. One person may easily complete a 12 x 4 training session and struggle with the metabolic demands of a repetition range of 8 to 12 repetitions. And the complete opposite may be true for another person.
In short, you should choose the workout that you find more challenging and do it at the time of day when you generally feel best.
Rule #3: Use a split program
Full-body programs and upper/lower body split programs are great tools that have their rightful place in workout planning, but neither are ideal for a two-workout-per-day program. The volume would be insane and your body would break down, which is why you shouldn't even try these workout splits on a two workout per day program. (You have been warned!).
If you want to train twice a day, then it's better to use a more varied split. I recommend a pairing of two muscle groups as in the example below:
- Pairing 1: Chest/back
- Pairing 2: legs hip dominant/shoulders
- Pairing 3: Arms
- Pairing 4: quadriceps dominant legs/calves
The above pairings follow one of two rules. The pairing is either
- a set of antagonistic upper body muscles or
- a large muscle group paired with a smaller muscle group
Large muscle groups require large, demanding exercises (e.g. squats and deadlifts for quadriceps-dominant and hip-dominant leg workouts) and are paired with smaller muscle groups using smaller, less demanding exercises.
Rule #4: Never train the same muscle group twice in one day with the same set/repetition scheme
If you train the same muscle group twice a day, you need to target different skeletal muscle components by using different stimuli/repetition ranges. Training the arms in the morning with sets of 10 repetitions and then again with the same repetition range in the afternoon/evening is not productive as the second training session will only interfere with recovery after the first training session.
Four approaches to training with two training sessions per day
After looking at the rules to follow, let's take a look at some approaches to training twice a day.
Approach #1: Mix it up
Many training programs use different repetition ranges within the same training phase to train a given muscle group with different stimuli throughout the week. Usually there is a "heavy" day where many sets with few repetitions (e.g. 12 x 4) are performed and then a "lighter" day with fewer sets but a higher number of repetitions per set (e.g. 5 x 12).
An excellent approach to a two workout per day training program is to mimic this heavy/light protocol, using these different repetition ranges on the same day rather than during the same week. Using this approach, your morning training session could be your heavy training session and your afternoon training session could be your light training session.
I would do this over the course of a week as follows:
Monday morning: chest/back (12x4)
Monday afternoon: chest/back (4x12)
Tuesday morning: hip-dominant legs/shoulders (12x4)
Tuesday afternoon: hip-dominant legs/shoulders (4x12)
Thursday morning: arms (12x4)
Thursday afternoon: arms (4x12)
Friday morning: quadriceps-dominant legs/calves (12x4)
Friday afternoon: quadriceps-dominant legs/calves (4x12)
Keep rule number two in mind when deciding which repetition range to use during the morning/afternoon training session. If you prefer to train heavy in the afternoon, then you should do so.
Performing the last two sets of the 4 x 12 training sessions as a superset with an isolation exercise is also a good idea. For example, if you perform bench presses, you can perform the last two sets with flying movements in the superset. If you perform standing shoulder presses, you can perform the last two sets in the superset with side raises.
As this approach is very demanding, I would not use it for more than two weeks in a row.
Approach #2: Pump up the volume
Another approach to a training program with two daily training sessions is to increase the weekly volume by training different muscle groups in the morning and afternoon. For example, if you typically train in the manner described below, then with two daily workouts you will be able to achieve your normal weekly volume in just two days.
- Monday: chest/back
- Tuesday: legs hip dominant/shoulders
- Thursday: Arms
- Friday: quadriceps dominant legs/calves
I would recommend the following for a training program with two daily training sessions based on the "Pump up the Volume" approach:
Day 1 morning: chest/back
Day 1 afternoon: leg curls/shoulders
Day 2 Morning: Arms
Day 2 Afternoon: Legs quadriceps dominant/calves
Day 3: No training
And this sequence is then repeated, with every third day being training-free.
I would also not use this approach for more than two weeks at a time due to the high volume.
Approach #3: Quality over quantity
With the "quality over quantity" approach, the workload per training session is halved and only one muscle group is trained per training session. This is a great approach to keep the CNS fresh and rested, promote better workouts and improve nutrient partitioning to each individual muscle group. I would run it as follows:
Day 1 Morning: Chest
Day 1 Afternoon: Back
Day 2 Morning: Leg curls
Day 2 Afternoon: Shoulders
Day 3 Morning: Biceps
Day 3 Afternoon: Triceps
Day 4 Morning: Quadriceps dominant legs
Day 4 Afternoon: Calves
Day 5: Training-free
This sequence is then repeated, with every fifth day being training-free. If I was able to train twice a day on a regular basis, the majority of my training sessions would look like this. Nothing will make you feel better than after a 20-minute training session.
Approach #4: Specialization
This approach uses days with two training sessions only to target and help develop one or two lagging muscle groups. A specialization program for arms might look like this:
- Monday: chest/back
- Tuesday: Leg curls/shoulders
- Thursday
o Morning: arms (12x4)
o Afternoon: arms (4x12)
- Friday: quadriceps dominant legs/calves
The Double Trouble hypertrophy program
If you are able to train twice a day on a regular basis, the following is an excellent training block that is sure to help you make spectacular hypertrophy and strength gains.
- Week 1-2: Mix It Up approach, as described
- Week 3: Unload, low volume, 3x10
- Week 4-5: Pump up the volume approach, heavy/average volume, 6x4
- Week 6-7: Quality over quantity approach, light/high volume, 8x10
- Week 8-9: Quality over quantity approach, light/low volume, 4x10
- Week 10-11: Mix it up approach
- Week 12: Unload, low volume, 3x10
The first two weeks follow the "Mix it Up" approach described above. Week three is a transition/unload week, during which a lower training volume is used (train each muscle group once a week with 3 sets of 10 reps. During this week there is no day with two training sessions).
Weeks four and five follow the "pump up the volume" approach using a "heavy" set/repetition scheme with average volume (6 x 4 is the scheme of choice here). During weeks six and seven, move to the "quality over quantity" approach with a light set/repetition scheme and a high volume (during this week 8 sets of 10 reps are the order of the day).
For the next two weeks, continue with the "quality over quantity" approach with a moderate volume set/repetition scheme (4 x 10). Each workout during these two weeks will be less than 15 minutes long.
The "Mix it Up" approach will be repeated during weeks ten and eleven and the training block will conclude with another unload/supercompensation week of 3 sets of 10 reps per muscle group.
Summary
Training twice a day is an effective way to achieve fast results in a short period of time. Having said that, it should be mentioned that additional stimulation on its own is not what will get you there. There are a number of ways to mess this up, such as under-training or over-training - success depends on the right approach. And with the information presented here, you now have a whole range of approaches to choose from.
If you have the time and ambition to give Double Trouble Hypertrophy a chance (and some good nutrition), I'm confident you'll make immense gains in muscle mass and strength within 12 weeks. Give it a try!
From Joel Marion | 06/07/07
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/double-trouble-hypertrophy
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Training splits: changes you can believe in
Has your muscle building come to a standstill? Are you bored to death with your current training program?
Then you need a change and a challenge!
Here are four effective changes you can make in the gym to solve these problems:
- Change your exercises.
- Change your set/repetition pattern. Have you been doing three sets of 10 reps since tenth grade? Try 5 x 5, 2 x 15 or 8 x 3.
- Follow the 3rd law of muscle and optimize your nutrition around your workouts.
- Use a new training split.
Let's take a closer look at number 4.
Some people train their whole body - every major muscle group - during a single training session. Others split their muscle groups into different training days.
If you talk to the most experienced trainers, they will all tell you the same thing: there is no best training split! This can be summarized as follows:
"There is no universal training split that is ideal for all purposes. The potential effectiveness of a mode of training organization will depend heavily on goals, schedule, experience and individual body composition."
And I would like to add the following: Sometimes the best training split for you is simply the one you haven't used in a while. Change - at least the kind that stimulates new adaptations - is a good thing.
Let's look at some basic training splits and talk about the benefits of each. Whether you're a beginner who needs a plan to get you started or you're a workout veteran who needs a new challenge, you can consider the following a quick and dirty introduction to different workout splits.
Full body workout
Strictly speaking, the first training split is not a training split. Basically, you train the entire body during a training session. Typically, this is followed by a day off before you perform the next full-body training session. The whole thing looks like this:
Monday: Full-body training
Tuesday: No training
Wednesday: Full-body training
Thursday: No training
Friday: Full-body training
You can continue the sequence with a training-free Saturday and a full-body workout on Sunday or take the weekend off.
With a full body workout, you obviously can't do 5 chest-only exercises. You'd spend three hours in the gym working your way up to your calves... or you'd die of exhaustion first. And the latter will cause atrophy. You therefore only train the chest with a heavy basic exercise and then move on to the next muscle group.
The cool thing, however, is that you will be training your chest again very soon. The volume for the chest per training session is therefore low, but the frequency is high. This means that you will train the chest three times a week instead of once every three to five days as with some split programs. In addition, you can use a different exercise for the chest in each training session.
Good for: Athletes, beginners, those who can only work out a couple days a week and those who are primarily concerned with fat loss. The Velocity Diet program, for example, works very well with a full body workout, with dieters reporting maintenance of muscle mass and even muscle gains.
A full body workout is a good plan that has been proven to work in practice, but most exercisers who focus on muscle hypertrophy sooner or later move on to one of the following workout splits.
The upper body/lower body split
Even fans of a full body workout like Alwyn Cosgrove like the upper body/lower body split. Cosgrove noted, "90 to 95% of the population will probably respond best to either a full body workout or an upper body/lower body split 90 to 95% of the time."
A standard upper body/lower body split should look something like this:
Day 1: Upper body workout only (chest, back, shoulders, arms)
Day 2: Lower body workout only (legs and sometimes abs)
Day 3: Workout-free or cardio
Day 4: Upper body workout
Day 5: Lower body workout
One nice thing about the upper body/lower body split is that, unlike a full body workout, the legs get their own training day. A lower body workout is challenging and - if you do it right - pretty damn brutal. Train your legs hard and you won't have much energy left for upper body training. The upper body/lower body split solves this problem for many.
The other two-way split
You can also split your body other ways without using the old upper body/lower body program. Here is an alternative:
Day 1: Chest, shoulders and triceps
Day 2: Legs, back and biceps
Day 3: Workout-free
Day 4: Repeat the program
The opposite muscle group split
In this split, you pair muscles on the opposite side of the body. For example, you train your chest and back on the same day. This allows you to use antagonistic training, where you train chest and back in the form of supersets, instead of performing several straight sets for the chest followed by several straight sets for the back. This has the following benefits:
Antagonistic training allows you to recover faster between sets. When you maximally activate one muscle group, the nervous system inhibits the opposite muscle group for greater movement efficiency. This phenomenon reduces the time needed for recovery and helps to restore strength.
You can use this loop within the structure of the nervous system to your advantage. If you alternate exercises for opposite muscle groups, then the nervous system will inhibit the muscles that are not being trained and you can recover your strength faster.
Having said that, it's worth mentioning that this is a good split even if you're not using antagonistic training. Here is a typical split:
Day 1: Chest/back
Day 2: Quadriceps/leg curls
Day 3: Biceps/triceps
Day 4: Workout free
Day 5: Repeat program.
The calves can be inserted on the leg day and the abdominal muscles can be trained on the less demanding biceps/triceps day. Or you can do both on your workout-free day... which of course means this is no longer a workout-free day, you gym junkie.
The shoulders are a little tricky with this setup. Some prefer to train shoulders on chest/back day, while others prefer biceps/triceps day. And a few believe that not much direct shoulder training is necessary, as the shoulders are already trained quite intensely when training the other muscle groups. Guys from this camp often perform a few sets of side raises and leave it at that as far as shoulder training is concerned.
Primary/secondary muscle splits
Primary and secondary muscles are old-school terms that are useful when it comes to describing these splits. If you are training the chest, then your pecs are the primary muscle group. They should be doing most of the work. The triceps support the pecs, making them secondary muscles.
In back training, the different muscles of the back do the work as primary muscles, while the biceps act as a secondary muscle group.
So far so good, but why is this important when it comes to your training split? Well, as noted in the example, the arms are secondary muscles when training for chest and back. This gives you 2 options:
Option #1:
Day 1: Back/Triceps
Day 2: Chest/Biceps
Day 3: Legs, Shoulders, Abs
Day 4: Workout Free or Repeat Program
The idea here is to keep your biceps and triceps "fresh" and rested. On day 1, for example, the triceps will be fresh and rested because back training uses the biceps and not the triceps as secondary muscles. You will find that you feel very strong when you train your arms with this split and can use more weight in your arm workout than if you pair chest with triceps and back with biceps.
Option #2
Day 1: Back/biceps
Day 2: Chest/triceps
Day 3: Legs, shoulders, abs
Day 4: No training or repeat the program
With this option, you intentionally pair the secondary muscles with the primary muscles. If you're already exhausting your arms by training your chest and back, then you might as well give them the rest with direct training.
As with most of these splits, we wouldn't say one is better than the other, just that it's different. So choose the one that best suits your needs, or choose the option you've used the least if you need something to break out of your usual workout routine.
The shock week split
Listen to how many successful bodybuilders describe their workouts:
"Man, I totally destroyed my legs today!"
"I'm going to destroy my biceps!"
"I couldn't brush my teeth for three days. That was an awesome training session!"
This is not really surprising. Ultimately, hypertrophy is all about damaging muscles so that they can be rebuilt a little bigger. This next split takes that idea to an extreme and splits the body into seven workouts. Why? Because this allows you to completely annihilate each muscle group and force you to grow muscle.
Here's one way to do it:
Monday: quadriceps
Tuesday: back
Wednesday: chest
Thursday: hamstrings (posterior chain)
Friday: biceps and calves
Saturday: triceps and abs
Sunday: shoulders
On each day, your plan is to completely obliterate the target muscle group. You perform every exercise you know for that muscle group, training from all angles and using intensity techniques such as descending sets and forced negative reps.
There are no rules. Your mission is to destroy - plain and simple - and then you then give that muscle group a full week before you train it again.
Crazy? Yes, of course. So don't do this too often. Rather, use this split as an occasional secret weapon to break through a plateau.
The "legs suck" split
Think leg workouts suck? Hate the nausea and lactic acid burn that effective leg training always seems to cause?
Well, then there's a good chance the joke "Hey, are those your legs or are you riding a stork?" applies to you, because if you hate leg day, your lower body will probably reflect it.
Don't worry about this one. Here's a split that will not only make leg training a little more bearable, but also more muscular, as you can focus on quadriceps and hamstrings during separate workouts.
Day 1: Leg curls and calves
Day 2: Back and shoulders
Day 3: Workout-free
Day 4: Quadriceps and calves
Day 5: Chest and arms
Day 6: Workout-free
Not only is the leg training split up, but the calves are also trained twice a week. And admit it: you need this.
Note: This idea has also been described as a hip-dominant day and a quadriceps-dominant day. This is pretty much the same thing: one day for deadlifts and the like and one day for squats and their diabolical cousins.
The push/pull split
Some trainers prefer to think in terms of movements rather than muscles. When this is incorporated into a weekly program, it falls somewhere between a full body workout and a standard split program.
Such a split could look like this:
Day 1: Push
Day 2: Pull
Day 3: Workout-free
Day 4: Push
Day 5: Pull
The "push" (pressure) muscle groups are chest, quadriceps, shoulders, triceps and calves.
In turn, the back, hamstrings, biceps and forearms are the "pull" muscle groups
Example exercises for the "push" training day include bench presses, squats, overhead presses, side raises and tricep presses.
Example exercises for the "pull" training day include deadlifts, pull-ups, shoulder raises and rowing.
The "Ol' Standby" Split
This is a very popular bodybuilding split and probably one of the first most of us ever used. It's an effective plan that keeps the theme of primary and secondary muscle groups in mind.
The only problem? This split further contributes to Monday being International Chest Day.
You can, of course, start the week with back if you can't find a free bench!
Day 1: Chest
Day 2: Back
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Arms and shoulders
Day 5: No training
From T Nation | 12/25/09
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/ten-killer-splits
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